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BS    2615     .K46    1922 
Keppel,    David,    1849-1939 
That   ye  may   believe 


OTHER  BOOKS  BY  DR.  KEPPEL 

THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION  NOT  A 
MYSTERY 

THAT  YE  MAY  KNOW 


That  Ye  May  Believe 

The  Argument  of  Saint  John's  Gospel 


By 
DAVID  KEPPEL 


THE  METHODIST  BOOK  CONCERN 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
DAVID  KEPPEL 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Bible  text  used  in  this  volume  is  taken  from  the  American 
Standard  Edition  of  the  Revised  Bible,  copyright,  1901,  by  Thomas 
Nelson  &  Sons,  and  is  used  by  permission. 


TO   THE    MEMORY   OF 

THREE  JOHNS 

my  brother 

The  Reverend  John  Hadden  Keppel 

preacher  of  the  gospel  in  canada  and  the 

united   states,    who   was    the   first   to 

encourage   me   in    these  studies; 

my  father 

John  Keppel 

of  tullow,  ireland,  and  later  of  the  united 

states,    an    earnest    student   of    holy 

scripture,  including  john's  gospel; 

my  grandfather 

The  Reverend  John  Hadden 

one  of  john  wesley's  preachers  in  Ireland, 

himself    a    son    of    thunder    and    a 

beloved  disciple. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Prefatory  Note 9 

I.    The    Testimony    of  John   the 

Baptist  to  Jesus 11 

II.    The  First  Disciples 17 

III.  The  First  Miracle 22 

IV.  Jesus  and  Nicodemus 26 

V.    Jacob's  Well  and  Beyond 30 

VI.    The  Lord  of  the  Sabbath 35 

VII.    The  Bread  of  Life 40 

VIII.    Jangling  Voices 47 

IX.     "Can  a  Devil  Open  the  Eyes  of 

the  Blind?" 53 

X.    Bethany 60 

XI.    Jerusalem 65 

XII.    The  Upper  Room 70 

XIII.  The  Battle  of  Calvary 76 

XIV.  John  Sums  Up 81 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

In  the  Gospel  of  Saint  John  there  are 
two  things  of  importance,  the  substance 
of  the  book  and  the  object  for  which  it 
was  written.  In  the  substance  of  the 
book  we  have  a  nearly  unique  account 
of  the  works  and  words  of  Jesus,  with 
the  evangelist's  profound  deductions. 

With  the  substance  of  the  book  the 
reader  is  apt  to  become  quite  familiar. 
He  reads  John's  Gospel,  as  he  reads  the 
synoptic  Gospels,  for  the  sacred  story 
and  the  lessons  that  lie  upon  the  sur- 
face. 

But  the  average  reader  is  exceedingly 
apt  to  miss  the  object  of  the  book.  If 
we  are  not  greatly  mistaken,  very  few 
readers  can  tell  offhand  why  John  wrote 
the  book  at  all. 

Yet  Saint  John  is  careful  to  state  the 

object  of  his  book.     "These  things  are 

written,  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus 

is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God;  and  that 

9 


10  PREFATORY  NOTE 

believing  ye  may  have  life  through  his 
name"  (20.  31) ;  just  as  near  the  close 
of  his  First  Epistle,  he  states  the  object 
of  that  little  tract,  "These  things  have  I 
written  unto  you,  that  ye  may  know 
that  ye  have  eternal  life,  even  unto  you 
that  believe  on  the  name  of  the  Son  of 
God"  (1  John  5.  13). 

Thus  the  Epistle  completes  the  argu- 
ment of  the  Gospel.  In  a  former  trea- 
tise entitled  That  Ye  May  Know  we  at- 
tempted to  trace  the  line  of  argument 
of  the  Epistle;  in  the  present  treatise 
we  attempt  to  do  the  same  for  the  Gos- 
pel, by  tracing  John's  argument,  prov- 
ing that  Jesus  is  indeed  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God,  and  the  grounds  given  for 
such  belief  in  Christ  that  we  may  have 
life  through  his  name. 

Trusting  that  the  purpose  of  the 
Gospel  of  John  may  be  realized  by 
many  readers,  that  they  may  be  led  to 
accept  Jesus  as  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  and  find  eternal  life  through  faith 
in  his  name,  this  little  book  is  sent  forth. 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF    JOHN 
THE  BAPTIST  TO  JESUS 

(John  1.  19-36;  3.  22-36.) 

In  bringing  his  Gospel  to  a  close 
Saint  John  tells  us  why  he  wrote  it: 
"These  things  are  written,  that  ye  may 
believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God ;  and  that  believing  ye  may  have 
life  through  his  name"   (John  20.  31). 

The  author  never  loses  sight  of  this 
purpose;  and  each  successive  section  of 
his  book  contains  a  direct  argument, 
usually  based  upon  some  sign  shown  by 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  bearing  upon  the 
purpose  just  stated. 

To  present  these  arguments,  culmi- 
nating in  the  proof  that  Jesus  is  %he 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  in  a  series  of 
brief  and  helpful  chapters,  is  the  pur- 
pose of  the  writer. 
11 


12        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

First  we  consider  the  testimony  of 
John  the  Baptist  to  Jesus. 

A  wonderful  man  was  John  the  Bap- 
tist. One  of  the  few  whose  career  was 
foretold  by  the  earlier  prophets,  he  was 
accepted  by  the  mass  of  the  people  as  a 
prophet,  and  declared  by  our  Lord  to 
be  more  than  a  prophet. 

His  testimony  to  Jesus  falls  into  two 
parts:  his  earlier  testimony  given  at 
Bethany  beyond  Jordan,  when  he  first 
met  Jesus ;  his  later  testimony  given  at 
iEnon  near  to  Salim,  some  months 
later. 

In  his  earlier  testimony  he  says  that 
He  who  had  sent  him  to  baptize  had 
given  him  a  sign:  "Upon  whomsoever 
thou  shalt  see  the  Spirit  descending, 
and  abiding  upon  him,  the  same  is  he 
that  baptizeth  in  the  Holy  Spirit"  (1. 
33). 

Jesus  came  to  his  baptism  a  stranger ; 
but  on  him  was  the  sign  fulfilled.  "I 
have  beheld  the  Spirit  descending  as  a 
dove  out  of  heaven ;  and  it  abode  on  him. 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  JOHN      13 

.  .  .  And  I  have  seen,  and  have  borne 
witness  that  this  is  the  Son  of  God"  (1. 
32,  34). 

Such  was  the  Baptist's  testimony  to 
Jesus.  Over  and  again  he  repeats  it. 
To  the  delegates  from  the  Pharisees  he 
says:  "In  the  midst  of  you  standeth  one 
whom  ye  know  not,  even  he  that  cometh 
after  me,  the  latchet  of  whose  shoe  I  am 
not  worthy  to  unloose"  (26, 27) . 

To  those  who  attended  his  ministry 
he  said,  pointing  to  Jesus  as  he  walked, 
"Behold,  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world!"  (29)  and 
to  two  of  his  disciples,  one  of  them 
Andrew,  the  other  probably  John  the 
author  of  the  Gospel,  he  repeated:  "Be- 
hold, the  Lamb  of  God!"  (36). 

His  later  testimony  is  recorded  after 
Jesus  had  been  exercising  his  ministry 
for  some  time,  and  was  followed  by 
multitudes  of  the  common  people,  but 
despised  and  rejected  by  their  rulers. 

Being  driven  out  of  Jerusalem,  he 
went  with  his  disciples  into  the  open 


14        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

country  of  northern  Judsea,  "and  there 
he  tarried  with  them,  and  baptized." 
At  the  same  time  John  the  Baptist  was 
baptizing  at  "iEnon,  near  to  Salim." 
Thus  the  two  masters  were  exercising 
similar  functions  not  many  miles  apart 
(3.  23). 

Jesus  had  the  crowd ;  and  a  discussion 
which  arose  between  the  disciples  of 
John  and  a  Jew,  who  may  have  been  an 
adherent  of  Jesus,  about  purifying, 
brought  the  not  unnatural  jealousy  of 
John's  disciples  to  a  crisis. 

The  disciples  carried  the  case  to  their 
master.  "Rabbi,"  said  they,  "he  that 
was  with  thee  beyond  Jordan,  to  whom 
thou  hast  borne  witness,  behold,  the 
same  baptizeth,  and  all  men  come  to 
him"  (3.26). 

Note  his  noble  and  utterly  unselfish 
answer:  "A  man  can  receive  nothing, 
except  it  have  been  given  him  from 
heaven.  Ye  yourselves  bear  me  wit- 
ness, that  I  said,  I  am  not  the  Christ, 
but,  that  I  am  sent  before  him.  .  .  . 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  JOHN      15 

He  must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease" 
(27-30). 

It  is  not  easy  to  decide  whether  the 
following  testimony  is  from  the  Baptist, 
or  from  the  evangelist;  but  it  is  to  the 
effect  that  Jesus  is  as  superior  to  John 
as  the  bridegroom  to  the  groomsman,  as 
the  heavenly  to  the  earthy,  as  the  son  to 
the  servant. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  point  in 
this  testimony  to  Jesus  by  John  the 
Baptist  is  that  it  is  given  by  the  duly 
authorized  and  foretold  "messenger  of 
the  covenant"  (Mai.  3.  1).  Verily,  in 
assuming  his  place  as  the  "great  shep- 
herd of  the  sheep"  Jesus  entered  by  the 
door  into  the  sheep  fold,  and  did  not 
climb  up  some  other  way!  "To  him  the 
porter,"  who  is  none  other  than  this 
same  messenger,  "openeth."  He 
came  in  the  regular,  God-appointed 
way,  as  foretold  by  the  holy  prophets. 

Another  point  worthy  of  notice  is 
that  the  Baptist  announces  him,  not 
as  the  Christ,  or  Messiah  only,  but  as 


16        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

the  Son  of  God.  To  us  both  terms  con- 
vey about  the  same  idea;  but  not  so  to 
the  Jews  of  Jesus'  day.  There  were 
thousands  then  who  were  willing  to  ac- 
cept a  purely  human  Messiah ;  but  very 
few  who  grasped  the  idea  that  God 
would  send  a  divine  being,  "God  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh,"  as  his  Christ,  his 
anointed  representative,  his  Son.  In 
the  discussions  in  John's  Gospel  we  find 
the  opposing  Jews  not  unwilling  to  con- 
sider our  Lord's  claim  to  be  the  Christ ; 
but  the  moment  he  claims  sonship  to 
God  they  pick  up  stones  to  stone  him  as 
a  blasphemer;  and  in  his  trial  before 
Pilate,  they  claimed:  "We  have  a  law, 
and  by  our  law  he  ought  to  die,  because 
he  made  himself  the  Son  of  God."  Ac- 
quitted on  every  other  count,  on  this  he 
was  crucified.  Bear  in  mind  then,  that 
Jesus'  claim  to  be  the  Son  of  God  was 
no  afterthought,  but  that  this  first  wit- 
ness said:  "And  I  have  seen,  and  have 
borne  witness  that  this  is  the  Son  of 
God"  (1.34). 


II 

THE  FIRST  DISCIPLES 

(John  1.  37-51.) 

They  met  Jesus  as  strangers.  He 
had  done  no  miracle  and  spoken  no 
word  to  impress  them.  They  are  first 
attracted  to  him  by  the  word  of  the 
Baptist,  "Behold,  the  Lamb  of  God!" 
(1.36). 

"And  the  two  disciples,"  one  An- 
drew, the  other  perhaps  John,  "heard 
him  speak,  and  they  followed  Jesus. 
And  Jesus  turned,  and  beheld  them  fol- 
lowing, and  saith  unto  them,  What  seek 
ye?  And  they  said  unto  him,  Rabbi, 
.  .  .  where  abidest  thou?  He  saith 
unto  them,  Come,  and  ye  shall  see. 
They  came  therefore  and  saw  where  he 
abode;  and  they  abode  with  him  that 
day"  (37-39). 

How  commonplace!  The  disciples 
17 


18        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

were  very  ordinary  young  men  from  the 
humbler  walks  in  life,  fishermen  from 
Lake  Tiberias,  and  he  whom  they  called 
"Rabbi"  was  untaught  in  the  schools, 
had  done  or  said  nothing  remarkable, 
was  unknown  in  the  nation.  Yet  prob- 
ably both  of  them  accepted  him  at  once 
as  the  Messiah. 

"One  of  the  two  that  heard  John 
speak,  and  followed  him,  was  Andrew, 
Simon  Peter's  brother.  He  findeth  first 
his  own  brother  Simon,  and  saith  unto 
him,  We  have  found  the  Messiah.  .  .  . 
He  brought  him  unto  Jesus.  Jesus 
looked  upon  him,  and  said,  Thou  art 
Simon,  the  son  of  John,  thou  shalt  be 
called  Cephas,"  Peter,  "the  Rock." 
Jesus  saw  that  beneath  the  rather  shifty 
exterior  was  the  foundation  of  rock. 

To  learn  the  effect  of  this  interview 
upon  Peter  we  must  pass  over  several 
weeks.  Jesus  had  become  famous.  His 
miracles  had  become  more  and  more 
wonderful,  so  that  men  spoke  of  making 
him  king.     His  teaching,  however,  be- 


THE  FIRST  DISCIPLES  19 

came  more  spiritual,  and  therefore  less 
acceptable  to  the  worldly.  Many  of  his 
disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more 
with  him.  "Would  ye  also  go  away?" 
said  he  to  the  twelve,  of  whom  Peter 
had  become  leader.  Then  Peter,  granite 
rock  that  he  was,  made  answer:  "Lord, 
to  whom  shall  we  go?  thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life.  And  we  have  be- 
lieved and  know  that  thou  art  the  Holy 
One  of  God"  (John  6.  66-69). 

But,  returning  to  John  the  Baptist's 
encampment,  we  learn  that  "on  the 
morrow  he,"  Jesus,  "was  minded  to  go 
forth  into  Galilee,  and  he  findeth 
Philip:  and  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  Fol- 
low me"  (1.  43).  With  these  two  words 
Philip  is  won  to  faith  in  the  Messiahship 
of  Jesus. 

Even  more  remarkable  is  the  case  of 
Nathanael.  "Philip  findeth  Nathanael, 
and  saith  unto  him,  We  have  found  him, 
of  whom  Moses  in  the  law,  and  the 
prophets,  wrote,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
son  of  Joseph."     Nathanael,  without 


20        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

guile  indeed,  but  not  without  prejudice, 
answers,  ''Can  any  good  thing  come  out 
of  Nazareth?"  And  Philip,  knowing 
the  compelling  influence  of  the  very 
presence  of  Jesus  upon  himself,  says, 
"Come  and  see."  Jesus,  seeing  Na- 
thanael  approaching,  exclaimed,  "Be- 
hold, an  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom  is  no 
guile  1"  Nathanael,  surprised  but  not 
convinced,  knew  his  own  portrait  as 
sketched  by  the  Master.  "Whence 
knowest  thou  me?"  he  asked.  "Before 
Philip  called  thee,"  said  Jesus,  "when 
thou  wast  under  the  fig  tree,  I  saw 
thee."  Who,  then,  is  this  prophet  of  the 
clear  eye,  who  sees  a  man  under  his  own 
fig  tree  alone  with  God?  The  doubts 
of  the  Israelite  in  whom  was  no  guile 
vanish,  and  he  exclaims  ,"Thou  art  the 
Son  of  God;  thou  art  King  of  Israel!" 
(45-49). 

If  we  had  been  in  that  group,  and  had 
marked  this  mastery  of  men  by  an  un- 
known carpenter,  from  an  obscure  vil- 
lage, without  the  training  of  the  schools, 


THE  FIRST  DISCIPLES  21 

or  any  other  extraneous  help,  would  we 
not  have  taken  our  place  with  them,  be- 
lieving that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God? 


Ill 

THE  FIRST  MIRACLE 
(John  2.  1-11.) 

We  have  now  reached  a  turning- 
point  in  our  Lord's  ministry.  Up  to 
this  time  he  had  used  only  natural 
means  in  his  appeal  to  men ;  now  he  uses 
the  supernatural.  Even  then  he  would 
have  preferred  not  to  have  done  so. 
His  hour  was  not  yet  come.  But,  like 
an  affectionate  son,  he  yields  to  the  re- 
quest of  his  mother. 

We  are  familiar  with  the  story  of  the 
marriage  in  Cana,  as  recorded  in  the 
second  chapter  of  John;  the  wedding 
feast,  the  invitation  of  Jesus  and  his  dis- 
ciples, the  failing  of  the  supply  of  wine, 
the  mother's  request,  Jesus'  hesitation 
but  consent  to  do  what  his  mother  re- 
quested, the  water  turned  into  good 
wine,  the  effect  of  the  miracle  on  the 
22 


■ 


THE  FIRST  MIRACLE  23 

ruler  of  the  feast,  the  servants,  and  the 
disciples. 

Our  Lord's  hesitation  to  use  his 
miraculous  power  is  what  might  be  ex- 
pected. He  had  utterly  refused  to  turn 
the  stones  of  the  wilderness  into  bread ; 
shall  he  now  consent  to  turn  water  into 
wine  ? 

Well,  he  might  do  for  his  mother 
what  he  refused  to  do  for  the  devil. 
The  occasion  was  not  ideal,  neverthe- 
less, while  obliging  the  mother  who  had 
already  suffered  so  much  for  him,  he 
could  give  his  disciples,  whom  he  is  so 
soon  to  call  to  leave  all  and  follow  him, 
proof  that  he  is  not  only  able  to  give 
them  "day  by  day  their  daily  bread," 
but  if  need  be,  to  furnish  even  the  lux- 
uries of  life  also. 

On  the  wedding  guests  the  miracle 
seems  to  have  had  little  favorable  effect. 
It  was  to  practically  the  same  people 
that  he  said  a  little  later,  "Except  ye  see 
signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  in  no  wise 
believe"  (4.  48). 


m        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

The  ruler  of  the  feast,  the  best  man, 
had  his  little  joke  on  the  bridegroom. 
Calling  him,  he  said  something  like  this : 
"Well,  you  are  a  great  provider!  Folks 
generally  put  on  their  best  wine  first; 
and  when  the  guests  have  drunk  freely, 
then  that  which  is  not  so  good.  But  you 
have  kept  the  good  wine  until  now!" 

"The  servants  that  had  drawn  the 
water  knew"  (2.  9).  How  often  it  is 
that  those  in  humble  life  grasp  the  truth 
which  their  social  superiors  altogether 
miss.  They  knew;  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  they  took  the  obvious  step  of 
believing  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God,  or  that  any  of  them  en- 
rolled as  disciples  of  Jesus. 

But  those  who  had  already  accepted 
Jesus  as  the  Christ,  and  thus  were  in 
condition  to  profit  by  it,  were  lifted  by 
this  miracle  to  a  higher  plane.  They 
saw  that  their  new  friend  and  Master 
exercised  the  very  same  power  by  which 
the  God  of  nature,  in  the  alembic  of  the 
vine,  turns  the  water  of  the  rain  and 


THE  FIRST  MIRACLE  25 

dew  into  the  sweet  juices  of  the  grape. 
Thus  Jesus  "manifested  his  glory;  and 
his  disciples  believed  on  him"   (2.  11). 

One  other  lesson  we  should  not  miss: 
that  this  wonderful  Jesus  was  man. 
Yonder  matron  bustling  about  enter- 
taining the  guests  is  his  mother.  He  sits 
among  the  guests,  eating  and  drinking, 
sharing  and  encouraging  their  festivi- 
ties, beautifying  and  adorning  the  insti- 
tution of  marriage,  with  his  presence, 
and  the  first  miracle  that  he  wrought. 
Whatever  more  and  greater  he  may  be, 
he  is  "The  man  Christ  Jesus." 

"We  have  not  a  high  priest  that  can- 
not be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our 
infirmities;  but  one  that  hath  been 
tempted  on  all  points  like  as  we  are,  yet 
without  sin."  "In  that  he  himself  hath 
suffered  being  tempted,  he  is  able  to 
succor  them  that  are  tempted"  (Heb. 
4.  15  and  2.  18). 


IV 
JESUS  AND  NICODEMUS 

(John  3.  1-16.) 

After  a  short  visit  to  Galilee,  Jesus 
came  to  old,  conservative  Jerusalem. 
It  was  Passover  time,  and  everything 
was  at  fever  heat — great  ceremonials, 
vast  crowds,  gross  abuses. 

One  of  these  abuses  was,  to  use  Jesus' 
own  phrase,  making  his  "Father's  house 
a  house  of  merchandise"  (2.  16). 
Later,  according  to  another  evangelist, 
Jesus  characterized  it  as  making  it  a 
"den  of  robbers"  (Matt.  21.  13). 

Jesus,  who  in  the  meantime  had  been 
performing  some  wonderful  miracles, 
and  had,  as  we  are  aware,  been  an- 
nounced as  Messiah  by  John  the  Bap- 
tist, leaped  at  once  into  the  exercise  of 
the  functions  of  the  Messiahship,  by  ex- 
pelling the  profane  and  dishonest  swarm 
26 


JESUS  AND  NICODEMUS         27 

of  buyers  and  sellers  from  the  Temple. 
This  he  had  a  right  to  do,  if,  indeed,  he 
was  the  Messiah. 

The  authorities  were  swift  to  chal- 
lenge his  right:  they  asked,  "What  sign 
showest  thou  unto  us,  seeing  that  thou 
doest  these  things?"  (2. 18) . 

Public  opinion  was  divided;  some, 
with  the  majority  of  the  rulers,  demand- 
ing greater  signs ;  others  holding  that  no 
man  could  do  such  miracles  as  Jesus  was 
doing  save  with  the  approval  and  help 
of  God. 

Of  the  latter  class  was  Nicodemus,  a 
candid,  open-minded  but  timid  man,  a 
ruler  and  teacher  of  Israel,  who  made 
the  memorable  night  visit  to  Jesus. 

It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  we  have 
anything  more  than  the  high  lights  of 
the  conversation  recorded,  since  all  that 
Saint  John  gives  us  may  easily  be  re- 
peated in  two  or  three  minutes,  a  period 
altogether  too  brief  for  such  a  momen- 
tous interview.  This  accounts  for  an 
apparent  lack  of  connection,   for  in- 


28        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

stance,  between  Nicodemus'  courteous 
address  and  the  seemingly  brusque  re- 
ply of  Jesus. 

How  many  great  truths  are  given  in 
this  short  interview!  God  and  the 
kingdom  of  God;  the  new  birth  by 
which  alone  that  kingdom  can  be  en- 
tered, or  seen;  the  spiritual  nature  of 
the  new  birth,  and  its  source  in  the 
Spirit  of  God;  the  depravity  of  that 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh ;  the  spiritual 
birth,  invisible  and  mysterious  as  the 
wind,  but  no  less  real;  Jesus  himself, 
speaking  what  he  knew  and  bearing 
witness  of  what  he  had  seen,  descending 
out  of  heaven,  ascending  into  heaven, 
nay,  even  then  in  heaven,  Son  of  man 
and  Son  of  God;  atonement  through  the 
lifting  up  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  eter- 
nal life  through  faith  in  his  name  (John 
3.  1-15). 

Throughout  the  interview  we  are 
struck  by  what  we  may  call  the  supe- 
riority of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Nicodemus 
high  in  position,  rich,  learned,  influen- 


JESUS  AND  NICODEMUS         29 

tial;  Jesus,  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth, 
poor,  despised  and  rejected  of  men;  yet 
everywhere  Nicodemus  is  the  puzzled 
learner,  and  Jesus  the  Teacher  sent 
from  God. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  elaborate 
these  capital  doctrines  uttered  by  our 
Lord,  but  simply  to  ask  ourselves,  If  we 
had  been  present  at  that  interview,  as 
we  believe  John  was,  what  would  have 
been  its  bearing  upon  our  belief  in 
Jesus  as  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
and  our  possession  of  eternal  life 
through  faith  in  his  name? 

Do  we  not  find  fitting  answer  in  the 
golden  words  with  which  John  sums  up 
his  impressions,  "For  God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life"? 


V 
JACOB'S  WELL  AND  BEYOND 

(John  4.  4-54.) 

Withdrawing  from  Judaea,  and 
thus  removing  all  occasion  of  friction 
with  the  adherents  of  John  the  Baptist, 
Jesus  and  his  disciples  took  the  north- 
ward road  leading  through  Samaria  to 
Galilee. 

Weary  with  his  long  tramp,  Jesus  sat 
thus  on  the  well.  There  was  probably 
not  a  door  in  all  Samaria  that  would 
open  to  him,  and  his  only  shelter  from 
the  blazing  sun  was  the  canopy  over  the 
well.  The  disciples  have  gone  to  the  vil- 
lage to  buy  food,  and  Jesus  is  alone. 

A  Samaritan  woman  approaches  to 
draw  water  from  the  deep  well,  and 
Jesus  asks  for  a  drink  of  water,  only 
to  be  refused. 

30 


JACOB'S  WELL  AND  BEYOND   31 

Jesus  was  one  of  those  gifted  souls 
who 

"Find  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running 
brooks, 
Sermons    in    stones,    and    good    in    every- 
thing" ; 

and  from  the  drink  of  water  refused, 
preached  the  "living  water"  as  a  free 
gift. 

"Sir,"  said  she,  "give  me  this  water, 
that  I  thirst  not,  neither  come  all  the 
way  hither  to  draw."  "Jesus  saith  unto 
her,  Go,  call  thy  husband,  and  come 
hither.  The  woman  answered  and  said 
unto  him,  I  have  no  husband.  Jesus 
saith  under  her,  Thou  saidst  well,  I  have 
no  husband :  for  thou  hast  had  five  hus- 
bands; and  he  whom  thou  now  hast  is 
not  thy  husband."     (4.  15-18.) 

Finding  the  veil  snatched  away  from 
her  sinful  life,  but  very  little  abashed 
by  the  exposure,  she  exclaims,  "Sir,  I 
perceive  that  thou  art  a  prophet" ;  and 
then,  perhaps  to  change  a  conversation 


32        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

that  had  become  embarrassing,  and  per- 
haps from  higher  motives,  she  broaches 
the  age-long  question  between  Jews  and 
Samaritans,  as  to  where  they  ought  to 
worship,  in  Jerusalem  or  on  the  Samari- 
tan mountain;  and  the  Great  Teacher 
gives  an  answer  that  empties  the  whole 
controversy  of  significance.  It  is  not 
the  place,  but  the  spirit  of  worship  that 
matters.  "Jesus  saith  unto  her, 
Woman,  believe  me,  the  hour  cometh, 
when  neither  in  this  mountain,  nor  in 
Jerusalem,  shall  ye  worship  the  Father. 
.  .  .  But  the  hour  cometh,  and  now  is, 
when  the  true  worshipers  shall  wor- 
ship the  Father  in  spirit  and  truth.  .  .  . 
God  is  a  Spirit:  and  they  that  worship 
him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth" 
(4.21-24). 

Impressed,  but  not  ready  to  give  up 
her  lifelong  sectarian  belief,  the  woman 
appeals  the  question  to  a  higher  author- 
ity than  that  of  a  prophet,  "I  know  that 
Messiah  cometh;  .  .  .  when  he  is 
come,  he  will  declare  unto  us  all  things. 


JACOB'S  WELL  AND  BEYOND    33 

Jesus  saith  unto  her,  I  that  speak  unto 
thee  am  he"  (4.  25,  26). 

Leaving  her  water-pot,  and  that  with 
which  she  lowered  it  into  the  well,  for 
the  convenience  of  Jesus  and  his  com- 
pany, she  hurried  back  to  her  village. 
To  the  men  she  cried,  "Come,  see  a  man, 
who  told  me  all  things  that  ever  I  did: 
can  this  be  the  Christ?"  (29). 

What  a  narrow,  soiled  lif e  was  hers ! 
Like  some  of  our  times,  she  counted  her 
years  by  her  husbands.  Yet  she  had 
influence  enough  to  bring  the  whole  vil- 
lage to  Jesus ;  and  after  two  days'  min- 
istry with  them,  the  people  of  Askar 
recognized  Jesus  as  more  than  a 
prophet,  broader  than  a  Jewish  messiah, 
as  "indeed  the  Saviour  of  the  world" 
(42). 

When  he  came  into  Galilee  the  news 
spread  that  their  own  prophet,  who  had 
done  such  wonders  in  Judaea,  was  com- 
ing home;  and  at  Cana  he  found  a 
nobleman  who  had  hurried  up  from 
Capernaum  to  beg  him  to  come  down 


34        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

and  heal  his  fever-smitten  son.  In- 
stead of  that,  he  spoke  the  word  of 
power  in  Cana  and  healed  the  lad  in 
Capernaum.  And  the  grateful  father 
believed  and  his  whole  house. 

If  we  had  been  among  the  simple- 
minded  Samaritans,  or  in  the  noble- 
man's family,  would  we  not  have  done 
the  same? 


VI 
THE  LORD  OF  THE  SABBATH 

(John  5.  1-47.) 

The  evangelist  now  introduces  a 
series  of  encounters  of  our  Lord  with 
the  hostile  Jews,  in  which  his  claim  to  be 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  was  an- 
tagonized. 

One  of  these  was  occasioned  by  the 
cure  of  a  paralytic  at  the  pool  of  Be- 
thesda  in  Jerusalem. 

One  Sabbath  day  Jesus  visited  this 
pool,  whose  waters  were  reputed  to  have 
curative  properties,  especially  at  the 
moment  of  the  moving  of  the  waters, 
ascribed  by  some  to  the  descent  of  an 
angel  into  the  pool,  really  due  to  the 
action  of  an  intermittent  spring. 

He  found  there  many  sick  people, 
blind,  lame,  or  paralyzed,  among  them 
one  who  had  been  an  invalid  for  thirty- 
35 


36        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

eight  years.  After  a  few  words  which 
drew  out  the  fact  that  the  man  was  ut- 
terly helpless,  Jesus  told  him  to  rise, 
take  up  his  bed,  and  walk. 

The  man  rose  up  in  perfect  health, 
rolled  up  the  pallet  on  which  he  had 
been  lying,  and  walked  about  with  it  in 
his  arms. 

The  crowd,  instead  of  being  grateful 
for  the  marvelous  miracle,  were  horri- 
fied at  the  breach  of  the  Sabbath  in- 
volved in  carrying  the  bed. 

The  upshot  of  the  matter  was  that 
Jesus  was  publicly  charged  with  the 
crime  of  Sabbath-breaking.  This 
brought  up  the  question  of  his  Messiah- 
ship  ;  for  if  he  indeed  was  the  Christ,  he 
was  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  also,  whereas 
if  he  were  only  man,  he  was,  like  other 
men,  subject  to  the  law. 

In  his  answer  he  planted  himself 
squarely  upon  his  Sonship  to  God.  "My 
Father,"  said  he,  referring,  of  course,  to 
God  his  heavenly  Father,  "worketh 
hitherto,  and  I  work." 


THE  LORD  OF  THE  SABBATH   37 

This  brought  upon  him  the  even  more 
serious  charge  of  blasphemy,  "because 
he  not  only  brake  the  sabbath,  but  also 
called  God  his  own  Father,  making 
himself  equal  with  God"  (5.  18). 

To  this  capital  charge  Jesus  does  not 
plead  "Not  guilty."  He  admits  the 
fact,  and  justifies  it  on  the  loftiest 
grounds. 

He  is  indeed  the  Son,  in  such  intimate 
union  with  the  Father  that  he  does 
nothing  whatever  but  "what  he  seeth 
the  Father  doing" ;  while  the  Father  so 
loves  him  that  he  shows  everything  that 
he  does  to  the  Son  (19). 

Moreover  the  Father  imparts  mar- 
velous powers  to  the  Son;  the  power  to 
raise  the  dead  and  to  judge  the  world, 
so  that  men  should  honor  the  Son  even 
as  they  honor  the  Father  (21-23) . 

Even  then  the  Son  was  granting 
eternal  life  and  immunity  from  judg- 
ment to  those  who  heard  his  word,  and 
believed  in  his  divine  mission  ( 24 ) . 

But  the  time  was  coming  when  the 


38        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

dead  in  the  tombs  should  hear  his  voice, 
and  should  come  forth,  "they  that  have 
done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life ; 
and  they  that  have  done  evil,  unto  the 
resurrection  of  judgment"  (29). 

That  such  a  Being  was  Lord  of  the 
Sabbath  needs  no  argument.  But  was 
he?  What  proof  does  he  offer  that  he 
is  indeed  the  Son  of  God? 

He  frankly  admits  that  his  own  tes- 
timony alone  was  not  sufficient.  But  he 
has  other  testimony : 

1.  The  witness  of  John  the  Baptist. 
This  was  fresh  in  the  memory  of  all,  for 
the  very  men  who  were  accusing  Jesus, 
had  sent  to  John,  not  long  before,  and 
received  his  express  declaration  that 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  (1.  34). 

2.  The  greater  witness  of  the  Father. 
"The  works  which  the  Father  hath 
given  me  to  accomplish,"  says  Jesus, 
"the  very  works  that  I  do,  bear  witness 
of  me,  that  the  Father  hath  sent  me" 
(5.  36). 

Another  witness  is  that  of  the  Scrip- 


THE  LORD  OF  THE  SABBATH   39 

tures.  "Ye  search  the  scriptures,"  said 
Jesus,  "because  ye  think  that  in  them  ye 
have  eternal  life;  and  these  are  they 
which  bear  witness  of  me"  (5.  39).  The 
evidence  of  the  Scriptures  is  just  as  con- 
vincing to  us  to-day,  as  to  believers  on 
Jesus  in  the  days  of  his  flesh. 

We  have  a  testimony  which  these  an- 
cient believers  did  not  have  in  the  same 
degree — the  growth  of  the  Church  of 
Christ.  When  we  view  the  church,  in 
spite  of  the  apparent  humbleness  of  its 
origin,  in  spite  of  internal  weakness, 
and  errors,  and  dissensions,  rising  like  a 
trickling  rill  from  Calvary,  deepening 
and  widening  until  like  a  mighty  river 
it  sweeps  on  through  the  centuries, 
touching  and  blessing  well-nigh  every 
family  of  man,  more  potent  after  two 
thousand  years  than  ever,  and  perhaps 
the  greatest  moral  force  on  earth  to-day, 
we  have  proof  far  greater  than  that  of 
miracle  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God. 


VII 
THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE 

(John  6.) 

John  the  Baptist  was  murdered. 
Sick  at  heart  and  weary  in  body,  Jesus 
crossed  the  lake  with  his  disciples,  to 
"rest  awhile."  But  instead  of  rest  he 
found  five  thousand  people  awaiting 
him;  and,  instead  of  being  indignant  at 
the  intrusion,  he  "had  compassion  on 
them,"  taught  them,  healed  their  sick, 
and  fed  the  five  thousand  with  the  two 
loaves  and  five  little  fishes,  from  a  boy's 
lunch-bag. 

The  feast  was  an  object  lesson. 
What  it  did  for  the  natural  life,  Jesus 
declared  himself  willing  to  do  for  the 
spiritual  life.  Both  were  misunder- 
stood— the  feast  and  the  discourse  on 
the  bread  of  life.  To  some  who  ate  of 
the  loaves  and  fishes,  it  was  merely  a 
40 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE  41 

free  meal,  and  they  were  ready  for  an- 
other the  next  day.  Others  saw  more 
clearly  what  Jesus  had  to  do  with  feed- 
ing them ;  and  they  intended  to  take  him 
by  force  and  make  him  king,  thinking, 
doubtless,  that  a  man  who  could  carry 
the  commissariat  of  an  army  in  a  lunch- 
bag  would  be  an  ideal  leader  in  a  cam- 
paign against  the  Romans.  A  very  few 
were  affected  by  the  miracle  of  the 
loaves  much  as  the  disciples  had  been  by 
his  first  miracle  at  Cana.  He  ' 'mani- 
fested forth  his  glory,"  and  they  "be- 
lieved on  him." 

In  like  manner  the  discourse  on  the 
bread  of  life  was  misunderstood.  Our 
Lord's  profoundly  spiritual  words  were 
taken  in  the  most  crass  literalness. 
When  he  spoke  of  their  eating  his  flesh 
and  drinking  his  blood,  they  thought  of 
cannibalism.  They  forgot  that  in  the 
feast  on  the  other  side  of  the  lake  the 
original  loaves  and  fishes  were  a  very 
small  part  of  the  feast,  and  all  the  rest 
was — Jesus.    If  he  had  not  been  there, 


42        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

they  would  have  gone  hungry.  But 
taking  the  baldly  literal  sense  of  what 
he  was  saying,  they  altogether  missed 
his  meaning,  and  were  disgusted  at  what 
they  thought  he  meant;  and  "upon  this 
many  of  his  disciples  went  back,  and 
walked  no  more  with  him"  (6.  66) . 

What,  then,  was  Jesus  saying  in  this 
discourse  on  the  bread  of  life? 

He  was  speaking  of  something  far 
too  deep  for  words,  and  that  must  be  ex- 
pressed by  figures,  if  at  all.  He  was 
speaking  of  something  that  to  this  day 
most  of  his  followers  miss. 

There  are  two  sorts  of  life  in  the  same 
man :  the  natural  life,  by  which  he  does 
natural  things,  such  things  as  animals 
do,  only  a  grade  higher — thinking,  talk- 
ing, toiling,  playing;  and  the  spiritual 
life,  which  only  rises  to  consciousness  at 
the  new  birth,  and  by  which  he  does 
such  things  as  the  holy  angels  are  doing, 
who  do  God's  commandments,  "heark- 
ening unto  the  voice  of  his  word"  (Psa. 
103.  20). 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE  43 

Jesus  does  not  call  this  "spiritual 
life"  as  we  do.  Indeed,  if  by  spiritual 
life  we  mean  a  life  that  influences  the 
spirit  only,  it  is  a  misnomer ;  for  this  life 
is  interfused  throughout  spirit,  soul,  and 
body,  keeping  the  spirit  in  touch  with 
God,  inspiring  the  soul  with  new  desires 
and  ambitions,  making  the  body  the 
agent  of  God's  will. 

Jesus  does  call  it  "eternal  life."  But 
here,  again,  we  are  liable  to  mistake. 
We  have  a  way  of  dividing  our  exist- 
ence into  two  parts — time  and  eternity ; 
and  of  thinking  of  eternal  things  as  hav- 
ing to  do  mainly  with  that  portion  of 
our  lives  which  lies  beyond  the  grave. 
There  is  no  such  division.  We  are  just 
as  much  in  eternity  now  as  we  ever  shall 
be.  Eternal  life,  beginning  now  and 
reaching  throughout  eternity  is,  indeed, 
a  life  that  shall  last  forever,  that  is  not 
interrupted  by  what  we  call  death ;  but 
it  is  much  more  than  that.  It  is  the  sort 
of  life  that  the  holy  saints  lived  while  in 
the  body,  and  are  still  living  in  glory. 


44        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

As  there  are  two  lives,  even  so  there 
are  two  foods — a  food  for  the  natural 
life  and  a  food  for  the  spiritual  life.  It 
is  of  these  that  Jesus  says,  "Work  not 
for  the  food  which  perisheth,  but  for  the 
food  which  abideth  unto  eternal  life, 
which  the  Son  of  man  shall  give  unto 
you"  (6.27). 

Partly  grasping  the  idea  that  this 
"food  which  abideth"  was  that  which 
would  make  them  efficient  to  do  God's 
will,  some  one  in  the  crowd  asked  him, 
"What  must  we  do,  that  we  may  work 
the  works  of  God?"  (6.  28). 

If  we  had  not  the  teaching  of  Christ, 
how  would  we  answer  this  most  impor- 
tant question?  Would  we  say,  "Well, 
if  we  really  want  to  work  the  works  of 
God,  we  must  study  his  Word,  we  must 
pray  a  good  deal,  we  must  be  very  dili- 
gent and  earnest"?  Others  might  say, 
"Fast  a  good  bit,  afflict  your  soul,  mor- 
tify that  flesh  of  yours."  Still  others 
might  say:  "Oh,  well,  if  you  really  want 
to  do  God's  will,  make  up  your  mind 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE  45 

that  you  will,  and  then  jump  in  and 
do  it." 

Excellent !  but  not  at  all  what  Jesus 
says.  He  says,  "This  is  the  work  of 
God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom  he 
hath  sent"  (29). 

Get  it,  beloved!  It  isn't  anything 
that  you  can  get  from  Christ,  much  less 
anything  that  you  can  do,  it  is  Christ 
himself  that  is  the  bread  of  life.  What- 
ever else  you  may  have,  without  Christ 
you  cannot  work  the  works  of  God ;  and 
if  you  try,  you'll  make  a  mess  of  it. 

"1  am  the  bread  of  life"  is  perhaps  the 
most  astounding  assumption  that  Jesus 
ever  made ;  that  of  all  the  millions  who 
profess  to  work  the  works  of  God,  none 
shall  succeed  but  those  who  eat  the 
flesh  and  drink  the  blood  of  the  Son  of 
man.  "Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you.  As 
the  branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself, 
except  it  abide  in  the  vine,  so  neither  can 
ye  except  ye  abide  in  me"  (15.  4),  says 
Jesus  to  the  eleven.  But,  how  can  we 
abide  in  him?     He  tells  us:  "He  that 


46        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood, 
abideth  in  me  and  I  in  him." 

Pretty  strong  meat!  Yes,  it  sifted 
the  Master's  following.  The  greater 
part  walked  no  more  with  him.  Even 
among  the  twelve  there  were  symptoms 
of  dissatisfaction.  "Would  ye  also  go 
away?"  said  Jesus  to  the  twelve.  "Peter 
answered  him,  To  whom  shall  we  go? 
Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life. 
And  we  have  believed  and  know  that 
thou  art  the  Holy  One  of  God"  (6.  68, 
69). 

Well,  which  way  shall  we  go?  with 
the  departing  disciples,  who  said,  "This 
is  a  hard  saying;  who  can  bear  it?"  or 
with  good  old  Peter,  who  had  been 
feasting  on  the  bread  of  life,  and  be- 
lieved and  knew  that  none  other  than 
the  Holy  One  of  God  could  feed  the 
soul  with  the  bread  of  life? 


VIII 
JANGLING  VOICES 

The  seventh  and  eighth  chapters  of 
John's  Gospel  are  not  easy  to  analyze; 
but  above  the  strife  of  tongues,  like  the 
tolling  of  a  great  bell  above  the  clatter 
of  a  city  street,  we  cannot  miss  the  ma- 
jestic words  of  Jesus,  words  which 
"nothing  extenuate,  nor  set  down  aught 
in  malice." 

The  first  jangling  voices  which  we 
hear  are  those  of  Jesus'  own  brothers. 
Hard,  worldly,  skeptical  words  they  ut- 
ter. "His  brethren  did  not  believe  on 
him,"  but  they  could  not  but  know  that 
their  great  Brother  was  doing  marvel- 
ous deeds  and  speaking  wonderful 
words;  and,  feeling  that  if  he  should 
now  be  accepted  by  the  authorities  as 
the  Messiah  it  would  reflect  great  credit 
upon  his  kinsmen,  they  appeal  to  his 
worldly  ambition. 

47 


48        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

"The  lever  they  use  to  move  him  is  a 
taunt.  If  these  works  of  yours  are 
genuine  miracles,  don't  hang  around  vil- 
lages and  little  country  towns,  but  go 
and  show  yourself  in  the  capital.  No 
one  who  is  really  confident  that  he  has 
a  claim  on  public  attention  wanders 
about  in  solitary  places,  but  repairs  to 
the  most  crowded  haunts  of  men.  Go 
up  now  to  the  feast,  and  your  disciples 
will  gather  about  you,  and  your  claims 
will  be  settled  once  for  all"  (Marcus 
Dods). 

His  brethren  did  not  know  that  to  do 
what  they  suggested,  and  what  Jesus 
actually  did  six  months  later,  meant  to 
him — death. 

When  Jesus  did  at  last  enter  Jeru- 
salem, the  city  was  seething  with  jan- 
gling voices:  "Where  is  he?"  "He  is  a 
good  man."  "Not  he ;  but  he  leadeth  the 
multitude  astray."  "Is  not  this  the  man 
they  are  seeking  to  kill?"  "Lo,  he 
speaketh  openly,  and  they  say  nothing 
against  him."     "Do  the  rulers  know 


JANGLING  VOICES  49 

that  this  is  indeed  the  Messiah?"  "Nay, 
we  know  whence  this  man  is,  but  when 
Christ  cometh  no  one  knoweth  whence 
he  is."  "Well,  when  the  Christ  shall 
come,  will  he  do  more  signs  than  this 
man  has  done?" 

The  clear,  majestic  voice  of  Jesus 
dominated  these  jangling  voices.  We 
may  say,  in  brief,  that  he  took  back 
nothing  that  he  had  said  as  to  his  Mes- 
siahship  and  divine  Sonship;  but  some- 
times reached  heights  he  had  never 
touched  before. 

For  instance,  "On  the  last  day,  the 
great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesus  stood  and 
cried,  saying,  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him 
come  unto  me  and  drink."  Jesus  had 
said  something  very  like  this  before ;  but 
now  he  adds:  "He  that  believeth  on  me, 
.  .  .  from  within  him  shall  flow  rivers 
of  living  water"  (7.  37,  38) .  Besides  re- 
ceiving spiritual  gifts,  the  believer  is  to 
impart  them,  to  himself  become  a  foun- 
tain of  the  living  water.  We  do  not 
wonder  that  when  his  hearers  grasped 


50        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

this  promise  of  the  Great  Teacher,  some 
said,  "Of  a  truth  this  is  the  Prophet," 
and  others,  "This  is  the  Christ." 

Another  high  point  in  Christ's  teach- 
ing was  when  Jesus  spoke  unto  them 
saying,  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world;  he 
that  followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  the 
darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of 
life."  A  mighty  claim  this,  to  be  the 
light  of  the  world!  Not  one  of  many 
lights,  but  the  light.  It  is  true  all  of 
his  followers  are  lights  of  the  world,  but 
only  so  as  planets  reflecting  the  light  of 
the  sun. 

"They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee; 
And  thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they." 

Jesus  was  not  by  any  means  allowed 
to  teach  in  peace.  Once  a  warrant  was 
issued  for  his  arrest ;  but  he  captured  the 
captors.  The  officers  returned  to  those 
who  sent  them,  without  their  prisoner, 
reporting,  "Never  man  spake  like  this 
man!" 

Often  the  jangling  words  interrupted 


JANGLING  VOICES  51 

his  teaching.  Then  the  fire  flew.  It 
was  plain  that  the  "sword  of  his  mouth" 
was  no  wooden  weapon,  but  a  true  Da- 
mascus blade.  Watching  the  thrust 
and  parry,  we  perceive  that  the  Man  of 
Galilee  was  no  mean  swordsman.  Take 
this  for  example: 

"I  speak  the  things  which  I  have  seen 
with  my  Father:  and  ye  also  do  the 
things,  which  ye  heard  from  your 
father." 

"Our  father  is  Abraham." 

"If  you  were  Abraham's  children,  ye 
would  do  the  works  of  Abraham.  But 
now  ye  seek  to  kill  me,  a  man  that  has 
told  you  the  truth,  which  I  heard  from 
God :  this  did  not  Abraham." 

"We  are  not  born  of  fornication;  we 
have  one  Father,  even  God."  .  .  . 

"Ye  are  of  your  father  the  devil;  and 
the  lusts  of  your  father  it  is  your  will  to 
do"   (38-44). 

Pretty  sharp  talk  that !  There  was  a 
good  deal  of  human  nature  in  Jesus  of 
Nazareth. 


52        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

In  this  discussion  Jesus  laid  stress 
upon  the  credibility  of  his  own  testi- 
mony. This  may  not  have  seemed  very 
convincing  to  the  Pharisees,  who  said, 
"Thou  bearest  witness  of  thyself:  thy 
witness  is  not  true" ;  but  to  us  now,  there 
is  no  proof  whatever  so  convincing  as 
Jesus'  own  evident  conviction  that  he 
was  indeed  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 

Right  here  comes  in  the  evidential 
value  of  miracles  to  us  who  have  never 
seen  a  miracle.  If  Jesus'  assertion  and 
evident  belief  that  he  was  the  Christ  the 
Son  of  God  stood  alone,  we  might  sus- 
pect that  he  was  a  victim  of  insane  de- 
lusions of  grandeur.  But  we  have  over- 
whelming historical  proof  that  his  asser- 
tion was  backed  up  by  such  miracles  as 
no  other  man  ever  did ;  so  that  we  have, 
as  he  says,  "the  witness  of  two" — of 
himself  and  of  the  heavenly  Father  who 
gave  him  power  to  work  miracles — that 
he  was  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 


IX 

'CAN    A    DEVIL    OPEN    THE 
EYES  OF  THE  BLIND?" 

We  now  take  up  the  study  of  one  of 
the  sweetest  stories  ever  told,  that  of  the 
grateful  man  who  was  born  blind  (John 
9.  1  to  10.  21). 

"A  prophet  on  the  Sabbath  day 
Had  touched  his  sightless  eyes  with  clay, 
And  made  him  see,  who  had  been  blind." 

This  was  a  miracle  in  many  ways 
unique.  First  of  all,  we  can  trace  its 
origin  back  into  the  mind  of  Jesus  and 
into  the  heart  of  God  his  Father. 

There  was  in  the  mind  of  the  Master 
a  powerful  impulse  to  give  sight  to  this 
blind  man;  and  back  of  that  still,  his 
consciousness  that  it  was  the  will  of  his 
Father  that  he  should  do  so. 

God  wanted  that  blind  man  given  his 
53 


54        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

sight,  partly  for  the  blind  man's  own 
sake,  but  more  for  the  sake  of  giving  the 
light  of  life  to  those  who  would  receive 
it  through  his  Son. 

Jesus  wanted  to  give  sight  to  the 
blind  man,  partly  because  he  loved  him, 
but  even  more  because  it  was  the  will  of 
the  Father  to  glorify  his  Son  by  em- 
powering him  to  give  to  the  world  just 
such  signs. 

The  miracle  was  done  in  circum- 
stances of  extreme  danger  to  Jesus. 
He  had  just  escaped  from  stoning  by 
hiding  himself  (8.  59) .  It  was  the  Sab- 
bath day,  which  he  was  already  under 
indictment  for  violating.  Another  Sab- 
bath miracle  would  seem  altogether 
likely  to  reveal  his  hiding  place  and 
bring  the  whole  rabble,  with  the  stones 
in  their  hands,  and  more  angry  than 
ever,  down  upon  him. 

Some  may  have  thought  that  it  was 
no  time  or  place  for  such  a  miracle ;  but 
Jesus  felt  that  it  must  be  done  and  done 
then.    "I  must  work  the  works  of  him 


EYES  OF  THE  BLIND  55 

that  sent  me  while  it  is  day,"  said  he, 
adding,  "The  night  cometh  when  no 
man  can  work."  Truly  he  was  our 
brother ! 

It  may  be  that  our  Saviour's  desire  to 
avoid  a  tumult  explains  his  seemingly 
grotesque  act  in  spitting  on  the  ground, 
making  a  paste  of  the  road-dust  with 
the  spittle,  and  smearing  the  eyes  of  him 
who  was  born  blind.  It  is  altogether 
likely  that  it  was  the  Master's  touch, 
and  not  the  clay,  or  spittle,  or  the 
Siloam-water,  that  was  the  means  of  re- 
storing the  blind  man's  sight.  If  so,  the 
actual  miracle  was  performed  at  the 
Temple  gate,  not  at  Siloam.  But  to 
keep  the  knowledge  of  the  miracle,  not 
only  from  the  angry  mob  within  the 
Temple,  but  from  everybody,  including 
the  restored  man  himself,  Jesus  seals  up 
his  eyes  with  the  clay,  and  sends  him 
to  Siloam  to  wash.  And  as  he  washed, 
the  seal  of  clay  dissolved,  and  the  man 
came  seeing.  When  he  came  back  to  his 
old  sitting  place  the  excitement  was 


56        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

over,  and  those  who  would  could  look 
calmly  upon  another  sign  given  by  the 
Father  to  justify  the  belief  that  Jesus 
is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 

There  is  perhaps  no  recorded  miracle 
more  open  to  investigation  than  this 
one,  or  any  that  was  more  carefully 
investigated;  and  that  by  thoroughly 
competent  and  most  unfriendly  investi- 
gators. In  every  direction  it  can  be 
traced  back  to  beginnings. 

The  man  was  born  blind.  This  was 
the  common  belief.  The  disciples  said 
so;  Jesus  himself  said  so;  his  parents 
said  so;  and  what  is  more  convincing 
than  a  mother's  evidence  that  her  baby 
was  blind?  The  man  himself  said  so, 
and  didn't  he  know  ?  Was  not  his  whole 
youth  and  early  manhood  proof 
enough? 

Now  he  saw.  "One  thing  I  know," 
said  he,  "that  whereas  I  was  blind,  now 
I  see."  They  doubted  his  word,  they 
reviled  him,  they  twitted  him  as  "alto- 
gether born  in  sin,"  they  cast  him  out 


EYES  OF  THE  BLIND  57 

of  the  synagogue,  a  dreadful  penalty! 
But, 

"Their  threats  and  fury  all  went  wide ; 
They  could  not  touch  his  Hebrew  pride; 
Their  sneers  at  Jesus  and  his  band, 
Nameless  and  homeless  in  the  land, 
Their  boasts  of  Moses  and  his  Lord, 
All  could  not  change  him  by  one  word: 
I  know  not  what  this  man  may  be, 
Sinner  or  saint;  but  as  for  me, 
One  thing  I  know,  that  I  am  he 
Who  once  was  blind,  but  now  I  see." 

And  how  clearly  he  reasoned!  "Since 
the  world  began  it  was  never  heard  that 
anyone  opened  the  eyes  of  a  man  born 
blind.  If  this  man  were  not  from  God, 
he  could  do  nothing." 

They  could  find  no  answer,  so  they 
cast  him  out  of  the  synagogue,  expelled 
him  from  their  church ;  and  when  Jesus 
heard  of  it,  he  found  him  and  took 
him  in. 

This  brings  before  us  two  groups, 
the  Pharisees,  who  cast  this  long- 
afflicted  lamb  out  of  their   fold,  and 


58        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

Jesus  and  his  followers  who  found  him, 
and  took  him  in.  Both  groups  claimed 
to  shepherd  the  flock  of  God.  Of  those 
who  had  thrown  this  man  out,  their  own 
prophet  had  said,  "Woe  unto  the  shep- 
herds that  destroy  and  scatter  the  sheep 
of  my  pasture!  saith  Jehovah"  (Jer. 
23.  1).  It  is  of  them  that  Jesus  says, 
"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that 
entereth  not  by  the  door  into  the  fold  of 
the  sheep,  but  climbeth  up  some  other 
way,  the  same  is  a  thief  and  a  robber" 
( 10.  1 ) .  Of  himself  he  says,  "I  am  the 
good  shepherd;  the  good  shepherd  lay- 
eth  down  his  life  for  the  sheep"  (10. 
11).  "I  am  the  good  shepherd;  and  I 
know  mine  own,  and  my  own  know  me" 
(14). 

"There  arose  again  a  division  among 
the  Jews.  .  .  .  And  many  of  them  said, 
He  hath  a  demon  and  is  mad ;  why  hear 
ye  him?  Others  said,  These  are  not  the 
words  of  one  possessed  with  a  demon. 
Can  a  demon  open  the  eyes  of  the 
blind?"  (19-21). 


EYES  OF  THE  BLIND  59 

Can  it?  Would  it  if  it  could?  Are 
not  these  miracles  of  Jesus  "too  great  to 
be  done  by  man,  and  too  good  to  be 
done  by  the  devil"?  How  can  we  avoid 
the  conclusion  that  verily  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God?  ' 


X 

BETHANY 

Sweet  Bethany!  Here  Jesus  was 
always  welcome  and  honored.  Here,  in 
a  home  of  refinement  and  comfort,  he 
rested  before  the  Battle  of  Calvary. 
Here  too  we  get  outstanding  proof  of 
the  lovable  humanity  and  mighty  divin- 
ity of  Jesus  Christ. 

Saint  Luke  tells  of  the  Master's  first 
reception  in  Bethany:  "As  they  went  on 
their  way,  he  entered  into  a  certain  vil- 
lage :  and  a  certain  woman  named  Mar- 
tha received  him  into  her  house"  (Luke 
10.  38) .  Happy  is  the  home  into  which 
Jesus  is  received !  Thrice  happy  where, 
as  in  this  home,  he  loves  to  stay ! 

Martha  "had  a  sister  called  Mary, 
who  also  sat  at  the  Lord's  feet,  and 
heard  his  word"  (Luke  10.  39) .  "Now 
Jesus  loved  Martha,  and  her  sister,  and 
Lazarus"  (John  11.  5).  Blessed  home! 
60 


BETHANY  61 

Driven  out  of  Jerusalem  and  rejected 
in  Galilee,  Jesus  "went  away  again  be- 
yond the  Jordan  into  the  place  where 
John  was  at  the  first  baptizing;  and 
there  he  abode"  (John  10.  40). — 
"Tenting  again  on  the  old  camp- 
ground" ! 

Here  he  receives  an  urgent  message 
from  the  sisters,  "Lord,  behold  he  whom 
thou  lovest  is  sick,"  but  strangely  seems 
to  loiter  there  until  Lazarus  died,  was 
buried  and  lay  in  the  grave.  Then, 
with  his  disciples,  he  turned  his  steps 
toward  Judaea. 

There  is  little  need  to  recount  the 
story  so  familiar  and  so  thrilling;  Jesus, 
a  hunted  man,  shunning  the  town  where 
lie  knew  the  emissaries  of  the  Sanhedrin 
would  be;  Martha,  strong  and  vigilant 
even  in  the  shadow  of  death,  hearing  of 
his  coming,  and  meeting  him  with  the 
words,  so  often  repeated  with  Mary, 
"Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been  here,  my 
brother  would  not  have  died" ;  her  flick- 
ering hope  that  her  brother  would  rise 


62        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

again,  perhaps  "in  the  resurrection  at 
the  last  day,"  perhaps  sooner;  her  firm 
faith  in  Jesus  as  all  that  he  claimed  to 
be,  that  whatever  he  might  do  or  not  do, 
he  was  "the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  even 
he  that  cometh  into  the  world"  (11.  27) . 
Then  we  have  gentle  Mary,  too  much 
absorbed  with  grief  to  notice  who  came 
or  went,  but  at  Martha's  whisper,  "The 
Master  is  here  and  calleth  for  thee," 
rising  quickly,  hastening  to  where  Jesus 
was,  taking  her  old  place  "at  his  feet," 
and  echoing  the  words  so  often  conned 
over  with  her  sister,  "Lord,  if  thou 
hadst  been  here,  my  brother  would  not 
have  died."  And  we  have  that  weeping 
procession  to  the  grave,  when,  with  the 
rest,  "Jesus  wept";  the  reluctant  re- 
moval of  the  stone  door  of  the  sepulcher, 
when  we  seem  to  catch  the  mephitic 
smell,  and  see  the  prone  body  in  its 
white  linen  cerements;  the  prayer  of 
Jesus,  rather  a  confidential  talk  with 
God  than  a  prayer ;  the  cry  with  a  loud 
voice,  "Lazarus,  come  forth!"  the  stir 


BETHANY  63 

in  the  cave  as  the  rising  dead  comes 
forth  "bound  hand  and  foot  with  grave 
clothes;  and  his  face  was  bound  about 
with  a  napkin"  (11.  44). 

It  is  all  over.  The  sisters,  wild  with 
joy,  cling  about  the  neck  of  their  risen 
brother,  the  crowd  go  with  them  and 
him  to  their  home,  the  spies  of  the 
Pharisees  creep  off  to  tell  them  the 
latest  news;  and  Jesus? — Ah!  Jesus, 
more  than  ever  fugitive,  is  well  on  his 
way  toward  Ephraim,  surely  not  the 
Ephraim  of  modern  scholarship — or 
guesswork — but  the  ancient  Ephron, 
where  Judas  Maccabeus  won  a  great 
victory  (1  Mace.  5.  46),  still  beyond  the 
place  where  John  at  first  baptized. 

There  is  another  recorded  visit  of 
Jesus  to  Bethany  (12.  1-11),  when 
"they  made  him  a  supper  there;  and 
Martha  served ;  but  Lazarus  was  one  of 
them  that  sat  at  meat  with  him.  Mary 
therefore  took  a  pound  of  ointment 
of  pure  nard,  very  precious,  and 
anointed  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  wiped 


64        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

his  feet  with  her  hair;  and  the  house" — 
and  world — "was  filled  with  the  odor  of 
the  ointment"  (12.  2,  8).  Then  it  was 
that  Judas  Iscariot  found  the  odor  of 
the  ointment  more  offensive  than  the 
body  of  entombed  Lazarus  could  have 
been,  and  in  his  indignation  went  and 
forged  the  last  link  in  the  chain  that 
should  bind  Jesus  to  the  cross. 

In  Bethany  we  find  Jesus  intensely 
human  in  his  tearful  sympathy;  but  di- 
vine in  the  power  that  called  his  dead 
friend  back  to  life.  As  Martha  said 
of  him,  so  say  we:  "Yea,  Lord:  I  have 
believed  that  thou  art  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God,  even  he  that  cometh  into 
the  world"   (11.  27). 


XI 
JERUSALEM 

(John  12.) 

While  our  Lord's  fame  on  account 
of  the  raising  of  Lazarus  was  fresh,  he 
offered  himself  to  the  common  people 
of  Jerusalem  and  the  passover  pilgrims 
from  all  over  the  Jewish  world  as  their 
Messiah  and  King.  This  he  did  by  pur- 
posely fulfilling  the  prophecy  of  the 
prophet  Zechariah:  "Thy  king  cometh 
unto  thee,  .  .  .  riding  upon  an  ass, 
even  upon  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass" 
(Zech.  9.  9).  He  presented  himself  in 
a  way  that,  without  offending  the 
Romans,  would  be  understood  by  every 
Israelite.  What  interests  us  is  that 
Jesus  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  and  by  the  hosannas 
of  the  multitude  was  so  accepted  by  the 
people.  From  thence  forward,  whether 
65 


66        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

he  lived  or  whether  he  died,  he  was 
Jesus  the  King  of  the  Jews  ;  so  even 
his  enemies  hailed  him;  so  Pilate  wrote 
the  title  for  his  cross,  writing  wiser  than 
he  knew.  May  we  add  that,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  "he  came  unto  his  own,  and 
his  own  received  him  not,"  Jesus  has 
brought  more  honor  upon  Israel  than 
all  her  prophets  and  kings ;  and  to-day, 
in  the  estimation  of  the  world,  the 
greatest  of  the  sons  of  Abraham  is  Jesus 
of  Nazareth. 

And  he  had  a  message  for  the  Gen- 
tiles. Certain  Greeks  that  came  up  to 
worship  at  the  feast  sought  and  ob- 
tained an  interview  with  Jesus.  To 
them  he  said,  "The  hour  is  come,  that 
the  Son  of  man  should  be  glorified"  (12. 
23) ;  that  is,  that  the  movement  which 
he  was  heading  should  succeed  glori- 
ously. 

But  how?  Not  by  his  continued  life, 
but  by  his  death.  As  a  kernel  of  wheat 
must  drop  into  the  ground,  or  remain  a 
bare  kernel  of  wheat,  must  die  to  bring 


JERUSALEM  67 

forth  much  fruit,  so  must  the  Messiah 
die,  to 

"live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  his  living." 

A  Messiah  reigning  on  in  Jerusalem 
would  mean  a  localized  kingdom,  a 
kingdom  of  this  world;  but  a  Messiah 
who  hated  his  life  in  this  world,  and  who 
was  "lifted  up"  to  die  upon  the  cross, 
would  draw  all  men,  Greeks  and  He- 
brews, Jews  and  Gentiles,  unto  him. 

Here  the  hostile  Jews  broke  in: 
"Lifted  up!  How  can  the  Christ,  who 
abideth  forever,  be  lifted  up?"  They 
rightly  understood  by  "lifting  up"  exe- 
cution on  a  cross,  just  as  we  understand 
by  hanging  execution  on  a  gallows. 
How,  then,  could  the  Christ  be  lifted 
up? 

Jesus  does  not  directly  answer,  but 
he  has  a  word  for  those  hostile  Jews. 
He  would  have  them  come  into  the  light 
in  which  he  and  his  little  flock  were 
walking.     It  was  still  shining,  but  the 


68        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

darkness  was  at  hand.  Yet  there  was 
still  time;  and  if  they  would  only  "be- 
lieve in  the  light,"  even  they  might  be 
sons  of  the  light. 

Then  he  gave  them  an  object  lesson 
of  the  coming  darkness.  Jesus  "de- 
parted and  hid  himself  from  them"  (12. 
36). 

He  adds  a  few  words,  perhaps  the 
last  that  he  was  ever  to  speak  to  his  own 
who  received  him  not,  most  of  them  al- 
ready spoken  to  the  same  people.  Their 
gist  is  that  he  is  so  united  to  God  the 
Father,  so  truly  his  messenger  and  rep- 
resentative, that  to  believe  in  him  was 
to  believe  in  God,  to  reject  him  was  to 
reject  God,  and  that  in  rejecting  both 
him  and  the  Father  they  were  rejecting 
eternal  life. 

What  shall  we  say  of  this  man,  who, 
having  just  displayed  his  power  in  rais- 
ing dead  Lazarus  to  life,  staked  and  de- 
liberately lost  his  life  on  the  claim  that 
he  was  the  Messiah  and  King  of  Israel, 
and  that,  if  he  were  lifted  up,  he  would 


JERUSALEM  69 

draw  all  men  unto  him,  Gentiles  as  well 
as  Jews — a  claim  fulfilled  by  the  com- 
ing into  his  kingdom  of  multitudes  of 
all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  peoples, 
and  tongues,  more  and  more  continually 
even  unto  this  day?  Is  not  this  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  author  and 
giver  of  eternal  life? 


XII 

THE  UPPER  ROOM 

(John  13-17.) 

The  "upper  room"  is  the  Holy  of 
holies  of  John's  Gospel,  if  not  of  the 
entire  Bible.  An  exhaustive  study  of  it 
does  not  belong  to  our  plan,  which  is, 
rather,  to  listen  to  this  marvelous  table 
talk  of  Jesus,  Testament  in  hand,  and 
inquire  what  bearing  it  has  on  our  belief 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God? 

First  of  all  we  are  impressed  with  his 
human  friendship.  "Having  loved  his 
own  that  were  in  the  world,  he  loved 
them  unto  the  end"  (13.  1). 

This  love  was  condescending  love. 
"Knowing  that  the  Father  had  given 
all  things  into  his  hands,  and  that  he 
came  forth  from  God,  and  goeth  unto 
God"  (13.  3),  he  took  upon  him  the 
70 


THE  UPPER  ROOM  71 

form  of  a  servant,  by  washing  his  dis- 
ciples' feet. 

This  was  to  teach  them  a  lesson  in 
service.  "Ye  call  me  Teacher  and, 
Lord:  and  ye  say  well;  for  so  I  am.  If 
I  then,  the  Lord  and  Teacher,  have 
washed  your  feet,  ye  also  ought  to  wash 
one  another's  feet."  In  this  he  does  not 
bate  in  the  least  his  claim  of  superiority. 

In  no  one  thing  was  the  quality  of  his 
friendship  shown  more  clearly  than  in 
his  treatment  of  Judas  Iscariot,  the 
traitor,  so  kind,  so  patient,  so  forbear- 
ing was  it,  until  by  his  own  act  that 
wretched  apostle  became  apostate. 

If  we  may  accept  the  arrangement 
suggested  by  Dr.  Moffatt  and  others, 
by  which  chapters  fifteen  and  sixteen 
are  restored  to  what  is  supposed  to  be 
their  original  position  in  the  middle  of 
the  thirty-first  verse  of  the  thirteenth 
chapter,  we  come  at  once  to  the  cement- 
ing or  interfusing  of  the  friendship  of 
the  disciples  with  their  Lord,  as  the 
branch  abides  in  the  vine.    This  is  much 


72        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

more  intimate  than  earthly  friendship. 
It  is  the  interlocking  of  their  very  na- 
tures, he  in  them  and  they  in  him,  as  the 
branch  in  the  vine  and  the  vine  in  the 
branch. 

The  bond  which  united  them — as  we 
might  say,  the  sap  which  made  the  vine 
and  its  branches  one — was  love,  the 
measure  of  which  in  them  was  that  they 
should  keep  his  commandments,  and  in 
him  that  he  should  lay  down  his  life  for 
his  friends  (15.10,13). 

Nor  would  he  have  this  merely  a 
union  between  himself  and  each  one  of 
them.  He  would  have  no  schism 
among  the  branches  any  more  than  be- 
tween each  branch  and  the  vine;  the 
gist  of  his  commandment  was  that  they 
should  "love  one  another,  even  as  he  had 
loved  them"   (15.  12). 

This  mutual  love  would  soon  be  their 
only  earthly  consolation,  for  the  world 
would  hate  them  even  as  it  had  hated 
him,  would  persecute  them  as  it  had 
persecuted  him,  would  think  that  a  serv- 


THE  UPPER  ROOM  73 

ice  had  been  rendered  to  God  in  killing 
them  even  as  on  the  morrow  his  mur- 
derers would  think  the  same  in  killing 
him  (15.  18ff.;  16.  2). 

One  mighty  heavenly  consolation 
they  would  have  in  the  loneliness  and 
suffering  which  they  would  endure  in 
the  world:  the  comforter  (15.  26), 
whose  presence  would  be  so  indispensa- 
ble to  them,  that  it  was  expedient  that 
Jesus  should  go  away  from  them,  for  if 
he  did  not  go  away,  the  Comforter 
would  not  come,  "but,"  said  he,  "if  I  go, 
I  will  send  him  unto  you"  (16.  7).  It 
was  impracticable  for  Jesus,  at  the  same 
time,  to  be  with  them  in  bodily  presence 
and  in  them  in  spirit;  and  this  Com- 
forter, this  Spirit  of  truth,  was  none 
other  than  "the  Spirit  of  Jesus"  (Acts 
16.  7) .  Thus  it  is  that  in  promising  the 
coming  of  the  Spirit  of  truth,  Jesus 
says,  "I  will  not  leave  you  desolate:  I 
come  unto  you"  (14.  18). 

There  was  another  party  to  this 
league  of  friendship — the  Father.     In 


74        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

answer  to  a  question  of  Judas,  not  Is- 
cariot,  "Lord,  what  is  come  to  pass  that 
thou  wilt  manifest  thyself  unto  us,  and 
not  unto  the  world?"  Jesus  answered, 
"If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my 
word :  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and 
we  will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our 
abode  with  him"  (14.  22,  23).  So  that 
the  Father,  as  well  as  the  Spirit  and  the 
Son,  joins  this  sacred  fellowship. 

To  this  Father — whom  Jesus  had 
once  identified  to  the  Jews,  as  he  "of 
whom  ye  say,  that  he  is  your  God" 
(John  8.  54),  and  to  whom  he  was 
so  related  that  to  have  seen  Jesus  was  to 
have  seen  the  Father — "Lifting  up  his 
eyes  to  heaven,  he  said,"  in  a  prayer  of 
which  every  petition  is  afire  with 
God:  "Father,  glorify  thou  me  with 
thine  own  self  with  the  glory  which  I 
had  with  thee  before  the  world  was.  I 
manifested  thy  name  unto  the  men 
whom  thou  gavest  me  out  of  the  world. 
.  .  .  The  words  which  thou  gavest  me  I 
have  given  unto  them,  and  they  received 


THE  UPPER  ROOM  75 

them,  and  knew  of  a  truth  that  I  came 
forth  from  thee,  and  they  believed  that 
thou  didst  send  me.  .  .  .  Neither  for 
these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also 
that  believe  on  me  through  their 
word;  that  they  may  all  be  one;  .  .  . 
even  as  we  are  one ;  I  in  them,  and  thou 
in  me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into 
one ;  that  the  world  may  know  that  thou 
didst  send  me"  (John  17.  5,  6,  8,  20, 
23). 

We  have  followed  this  confidential 
table  talk  of  Jesus,  in  which  he  laid  bare 
his  very  soul  to  his  disciples,  and  to 
God ;  and  in  view  of  it  all  we  ask,  in  our 
Lord's  own  words:  "What  think  ye  of 
the  Christ?  whose  son  is  he?"  (Matt. 
22.  42.) 


XIII 
THE  BATTLE  OF  CALVARY 

(Chapters  18-20.) 

When  Judas  Iscariot  went  to  the 
chief  priests  to  betray  Jesus  for  thirty 
pieces  of  silver,  if  he  could  have  re- 
vealed some  immorality  in  his  life,  or 
some  trickery  in  his  miracles,  he  might 
as  well  have  asked  and  received  thirty 
thousand  pieces  of  silver  as  a  paltry 
thirty.  But,  after  three  years'  inti- 
mate association  with  Jesus,  all  that  he 
could  reveal  was  the  place  where  "Jesus 
ofttimes  resorted  with  his  disciples"  for 
rest  and  prayer. 

This  he  did  reveal ;  and  when  with  "a 
band  of  men  and  officers  from  the  chief 
priests  and  Pharisees,  with  weapons  and 
torches,"  the  garden  was  surrounded, 
and  Jesus  "knowing  all  things  that 
were  coming  upon  him,  went  forth,  and 
76 


THE  BATTLE  OF  CALVARY      77 

saith  unto  them,  I  am  he;  .  .  .  they 
went  backward,  and  fell  to  the  ground" 
(18.  4,  6). 

It  is  hard  to  conceive  how  John,  who 
is  usually  so  restrained  in  his  state- 
ments, and  who  is  here  describing  the 
humiliation  of  Jesus,  his  arrest,  his 
binding  and  leading  away,  his  scourg- 
ing and  crucifixion,  should  put  into  his 
history  an  event  so  unlikely  as  this,  un- 
less it  was  true. 

True  indeed  it  was !  The  kingly  man 
who  met  them  at  the  entrance  of  the 
garden  was  so  majestic,  so  unlike  their 
conception  of  the  supposed  bandit, 
whom  they  had  come  with  swords  and 
staves  to  arrest,  that  they  could  not  be- 
lieve it  when  they  heard  from  his  own 
lips  that  he  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and, 
taking  him  to  be  some  high  dignitary, 
they  saluted  him  as  if  he  were  a  king. 

Not  less  dignified  was  his  bearing  at 
his  mock  trial  before  Annas  and  Caia- 
phas,  who  had  already  prejudged  him 
to  death.     And  when  in  his  hearing 


78        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

Peter,  as  Jesus  had  foretold,  thrice 
denied  that  he  knew  him,  that  kingly 
glance  that  had  brought  those  who  came 
to  arrest  him  to  the  earth,  melted 
Peter's  heart. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  malignity  of 
the  persecutors  and  the  weakness  of  the 
judge,  the  trial  of  Jesus  before  Pilate 
would  have  been  a  vindication.  Pilate 
found  "no  fault  at  all  in  him."  Nay, 
comparing  him  with  the  Jewish  rabble 
who  were  accusing  him,  Pilate  ranked 
Jesus  as  King  of  the  Jews.  Whatever 
the  purple  robe  may  have  meant  to  the 
mocking  soldiers,  to  Pilate  it  betokened 
kingly  majesty,  just  as  the  gorgeous 
robe  with  which  Herod  arrayed  him 
was  really  a  white  robe  betokening  inno- 
cence (Luke  23.  11).  When  Pilate 
penned  the  title  for  the  cross,  "Jesus  of 
Nazareth  the  King  of  the  Jews," 
he  knew  that,  though 

"Trouble-tried  and  torture-torn, 
The    kingliest     kings     are     crowned     with 
thorn." 


THE  BATTLE  OF  CALVARY      79 

Pilate  also  knew  that  he  could  have 
no  authority  at  all  against  Jesus,  except 
it  were  given  him  from  above.  Roman 
law  gave  him  no  authority  to  condemn 
an  innocent  man  to  the  cross;  and  he 
certainly  had  no  other  authority.  Were 
it  not  for  the  will  of  God  that  Jesus 
should  die  for  sinners,  and  Jesus'  con- 
sent to  yield  his  will  to  that  of  God, 
Pilate  could  never  have  sent  him  to  the 
cross.  He  was  only  an  instrument, 
guilty  indeed,  of  a  higher  power. 

The  real  charge  against  Jesus  was 
that  he  made  himself  the  Son  of  God. 
This  he  never  denied.  For  this  he  died 
on  the  cross,  thus  ratifying  by  his  suf- 
fering and  death  his  claim  to  be  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  scene  of 
Calvary,  perhaps  never  so  well  summed 
up  as  by  Rousseau  the  French  philos- 
opher: "If  the  life  and  death  of  Soc- 
rates are  those  of  a  philosopher,  the  life 
and  death  of  Jesus  are  those  of  a  God." 
But  in  the  resurrection,  the  Battle  of 


80        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

Calvary  that  seemed  almost  lost  as  he 
was  "crucified,  dead  and  buried,"  turns 
to  victory.  What  mean  the  stone 
taken  from  the  sepulcher,  the  empty 
tomb,  the  words  passed  between  the 
risen  Christ  and  Mary  Magdalen,  the 
lips  so  lately  sealed  in  death,  saying  to 
the  disciples,  "Peace  be  unto  you"? 
Can  we  better  answer  than  in  the  words 
of  the  doubting  apostle,  when  he  saw 
the  pierced  hands  and  feet  and  the  riven 
side  of  the  Crucified  vibrant  with  eter- 
nal life,  "Thomas  answered  and  said 
unto  him,  My  Lord  and  my  God"  (20. 
28)? 


XIV 
JOHN  SUMS  UP 

Two  writers  are  really  concerned  in 
producing  John's  Gospel,  an  editor  and 
the  author.  The  editor  was  probably 
that  Gaius  to  whom  John  addressed  his 
Third  Epistle,  and  of  whom  a  tradition, 
of  some  authority,  says  that  "the  Gospel 
of  John  was  published  in  Ephesus 
through  Gaius." 

This  editor,  who  certainly  was  of  suf- 
ficient standing  in  the  early  church  to 
give  his  commendation  weight,  testifies 
to  the  veracity  and  competency  of  the 
author:  "This  is  the  disciple  that  bear- 
eth  witness  of  these  things,  and  wrote 
these  things ;  and  we  know  that  his  wit- 
ness is  true."  It  is  probably  the  editor 
who  identifies  the  author  as,  "the  dis- 
ciple whom  Jesus  loved  .  .  .  who  also 
leaned  back  on  his  breast  at  supper,  and 
said,  Lord,  who  is  he  that  betrayeth 
thee?"  (21.20). 

31 


82        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

It  may  be  asked,  why  the  editor  did 
not  name  the  author,  instead  of  desig- 
nating him  in  this  roundabout  way? 
Well,  the  answer  seems  to  be,  that  to  do 
so  would  be  to  bring  suffering,  or  even 
death,  upon  the  author,  who  was  al- 
ready a  marked  man  by  his  exile  to  Pat- 
mos.  Such  was  the  enmity  of  the 
Roman  government  toward  the  sect 
everywhere  spoken  against,  that  to  be 
a  Christian  was  considered  a  capital 
crime.  And  it  will  be  noticed  that  not 
one  of  the  historical  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  writes  under  his  own  name. 

The  editor,  then,  goes  as  far  as  he 
safely  could  toward  identifying  the 
author  as  John  the  Beloved,  the  bosom 
friend  of  Jesus,  and  declares  him  to  be 
competent  and  trustworthy.  Tradition 
assures  us  that  John  wrote  his  Gospel  in 
ripe  old  age,  when  he  had  had  ample  op- 
portunity to  put  his  beliefs  to  the  test. 

What,  then,  has  this  close  friend  of 
the  Lord  Jesus — whose  testimony  as  an 
eyewitness  is  received  by  his  contempo- 


JOHN  SUMS  UP  83 

raries  as  beyond  all  question,  who  for 
threescore  or  more  years  had  been  put- 
ting his  beliefs  to  the  test — to  say  about 
the  argument  he  himself  has  framed? 

He  tells  us  that  after  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus  from  the  dead,  new  light  was 
thrown  upon  his  dark  saying,  "Destroy 
this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will 
raise  it  up."  Whatever  else  Jesus  may 
have  had  in  mind,  he  referred  to  the 
"temple  of  his  body";  and  John  says, 
"When  therefore  he  was  raised  from  the 
dead,  his  disciples  remembered  that  he 
spake  this;  and  they  believed  .  .  .  the 
word  which  Jesus  had  said"  (2.  19,  22). 

It  is  not  always  easy,  or  even  possible, 
to  decide  whether  certain  words  are  to 
be  credited  to  John,  or  to  some  other 
speaker.  Thus  at  the  close  of  the  con- 
versation with  Nicodemus,  we  are  not 
sure  whether  Jesus  or  John  gives  the 
well-known  sentence,  "For  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
on  him   should   not   perish,   but  have 


84        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

eternal  life" ;  but  in  either  case  the  bear- 
ing of  the  words  on  the  conclusion  of 
John's  argument  is  clear  (3.  16). 

We  cannot  fail  to  notice  the  fairness 
of  John's  argument.  He  does  not  by 
any  means  confine  his  account  to  things 
favorable  to  the  claims  of  Jesus.  He 
gives  both  sides. 

Thus,  referring  especially  to  the  rais- 
ing of  Lazarus,  he  says,  "But  though 
he  had  done  so  many  signs  before  them, 
yet  they  believed  not  on  him"  (12.  37). 
And  why  not?  Their  own  prophet, 
Isaiah,  tells  why.  The  trouble  was  not 
of  the  head,  but  of  the  heart.  Blindness 
had  happened  to  Israel,  that  judicial 
blindness  which  comes  as  the  result  and 
punishment  of  sin. 

"He  hath  blinded  their  eyes,  and  hard- 
ened their  heart; 

Lest  they  should  see  with  their  eyes, 
and  perceive  with  their  heart; 

And  should  turn, 

And  I  should  heal  them"  (John  12. 
40;  Isa.  6.  10). 


JOHN  SUMS  UP  85 

They  had  sinned  away  their  day  of 
grace,  and  the  things  which  belonged  to 
their  peace  were  hid  from  their  eyes. 

The  careful  reader  of  John's  Gospel 
can  hardly  miss  other  remarks  of  the 
evangelist  himself,  going  to  show  that 
he  had  the  utmost  confidence  in  the  con- 
clusion that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God,  and  that  those  who  believe  in 
his  name  have  eternal  life.  We  offer 
but  one  more. 

An  author  often  conceives  the  ideas 
of  the  introduction  to  his  book  last  of 
all.  It  was  so  with  John.  We  look, 
therefore,  to  the  opening  words  of  his 
Gospel  for  his  ripest  conclusion. 

He  introduces  him  who  is  to  be  the 
subject  of  his  book  as  the  Logos.  This 
was  a  term  much  in  use  by  the  theolo- 
gians of  John's  day  to  denote  a  manifes- 
tation of  or  from  God.  Philo  used  it 
to  express  God  speaking  or  acting  in 
time  and  space.  In  his  use  of  the  word 
Philo  seems  almost  Christian.  He 
speaks    of   the   Logos    as    "The   high 


86        THAT  YE  MAY  BELIEVE 

priest  and  advocate  who  pleads  the 
cause  of  sinful  humanity  before  God," 
as  "The  first-born  Son  of  God,"  as 
"The  second  God." 

John  identifies  this  Logos,  or  Word, 
with  Jesus,  who  "became  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us,"  to  whom  John  the 
Baptist  was  bearing  testimony;  and  also 
with  the  Word  of  God,  through  whom 
"all  things  were  made  that  are  made"; 
who  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 
"AND  THE  WORD  WAS  GOD." 

This  is  the  last  word  that  need  be 
said.  It  explains  all  the  rest,  the  mar- 
velous life,  the  mighty  signs,  the  won- 
derful words,  the  sublime  self-sacrifice 
of  Jesus.  He  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  God. 

He  who  believes  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
as  including  all  this,  who  so  reverences 
him  as  to  obey  and  follow  him,  and  so 
trusts  him  as  to  accept  him  as  Saviour, 
hath  everlasting  life. 


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